Samples from nearly 50 restaurants and hotel bars found nearly 20 percent had high levels of fecal contamination, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Sunday.

Water samples taken from a restroom toilet showed less bacterial contamination than the ice from 21 of the restaurants and bars sampled.

Fecal coliform does not pose a significant health risk at lower levels, though The Sun times cites several experts saying bacterial contamination may lead to illness in the elderly and younger children.

Most of the positive test samples came from ice-bins used by waitstaff or otherwise exposed sources.

"It means that obviously someones not washing their hands properly, and there's fecal matter," Frances Guichard with the Chicago Health Department said in the Sun-Times.

Representatives from the sampled restaurants told the newspaper they regularly passed their health inspections and noted that additional sanitary measures were in place as a result of the tests.

Ice is not tested by health officials and the test procedures did not conform to the standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

There are many cases of this nature but, will people change there habits because of a little bacteria, probably not. Ice tea and ice in our drinks is like Mom's apple pie they have been around forever. We just need to be aware of the obvious little things that might contribute to our well being. It's a kind of sobering thought to think toilet water is cleaner than ice.

Ice - Options

As boring as Ice is it is still something we put in our body and it's worth a thought especially if ice is doing us harm. Old tradition frowns on using ice because it dulls the digestion process like water on fire. Do they have a point? If you look at our nations health problems of today you could make a case that "Ice" could be a contributor. l

One option is colloidal silver. Colloidal is a bacterial killer, 15 drops of 250ppm would do the trick for 8 oz of liquid. No altering of taste would occur but, it takes about 20 minutes to clean the liquid. The other option is no ice or drink hot tea with your meals.

What a world we live in when we start picking on simple defenseless little ole Ice. We scrutinize every molecule and particle that is in it but, when you are sick you want to be aware of all the possible causes. We don't want to add fuel to the fire, in this case Ice.